The advantages of wireless automatic reading of gas meters have long been recognized. Such advantages accrue from the elimination of the high costs associated with manually reading meters located a long distance from a central utility office, inside of a customer's premises, at dangerous locations, and at the remote ends of a distribution network. Furthermore, in rural utility networks, long distances are typically encountered between each meter location. Thus, more employees are required to manually read each meter on a predetermined time schedule for accurate billing. However, most traditional wireless modules require a battery as a power source, and the battery may lead to problems such as adding weight to the whole system, limited life time, high cost of replacement, or potential hazard to the environment.